Magna Mundi AAR: 2nd Minor French-Burgundian War

[nalivayko]

Magna Mundi AAR: Minor 2nd French-Burgundian War

Prologue

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to have an enjoyable game with EU3's latest patch, I decided to give another go to Magna Mundi Gold mod. I've got TOT latest graphics mod to set the correct mod and decided to stay as far away as possible from Russia to avoid hurting my eyes. If I ever finish modding the map of Eastern Europe I may try a country or two in the region, but for now it's my old time favorite, the Duchy of Burgundy.

To further the joy of playing the game I get St Remy’s bottle of Napoleon brandy and set the nearby laptop to scream at me in the voice of my favorite Russian singer, Vladimir Vysotskiy.

Humble Beginnings

Usually I start relatively slow, trying to bring a couple of provinces in by peaceful means. This time I throw away the caution. My Duke Phillip III is a rather capable general and I have two armies itching for a fight. Army of Flanders and Army of Burgundy have 2,000 knights and 4,000 infantry each, guarding the northern and southern parts of my Duchy respectively.

A quick, almost surgical strike to the north has netted me a conquest of Friesland and Gelre as my vassal. I extend my influence to the south, gaining both Savoy and Switzerland as my allies. France, my eventual nemesis, busy fighting English at the time, is cut off in the west from the rest of Europe. Even though I'm somewhat drunk by now, as a reasonable man I fear France like my cat fears the vacuum cleaner. This means, I fear France a lot. France is, without an argument, a force to be reckoned with. A royal marriage is arranged to delay the inevitable showdown.

A quick, almost surgical strike to the north is followed by a rather sloppy war in the south against Liege and it’s allies, Cologne and Cleves. Faced with a fact that one army won’t be enough to bring the alliance to it’s knees, I am forced to acquire a military access through France and bring the Army of Burgundy to the theatre of operations. The war ends well enough with Liege annexed, Cleves as my vassal and Cologne losing Lippe. I fully intend to return Lippe to it’s rightful owner, thus gaining the favor of the Emperor and sympathy of the member-states of the Holy Roman Empire. Thus, when the time comes to upgrade all my provinces with workshops, Lippe is ignored.

 

[Garuda]

Humble beginnings? Sounds like an excellent beginning to me.

Good luck

 

[dharper]

This sounds pretty interesting; an AAR with such a limited scope ought to be quite good!

 

[nalivayko]

And one easy to finish, right?

 

[nalivayko]

The Kingdom of Burgundy?

The Pope is not a happy man. Couple of wars with the Archduchy of Austria cost him far too much money and loss of land in Italy. The same wars that cost Austria the Imperial Crown, as I find out later. Back to the Pope, though. Savoy decides to seize the opportunity and pick a fight with the Holy See. After a couple of previous games I am finally aware that the loss of stability is not as bad as the loss of prestige, so this time I answer the call to arms and help Savoyards to chase the Papal forces out of their lands.

Remember the military access through France I’ve got during the reign of Philip III? Philip IV finds it rather convenient to have now, since his army is able to reach Avignon and take control of the city. Savoy’s forces sail out of Nice and besiege Rome. Once the Eternal City falls Pope is happy to end the war by giving his French territorial possessions to Burgundy.

The music gets louder and louder and my wife forces me to shut down the door to the office… Somehow she forgets about the office window three feet away from the door… women, go figure.

My latest conquest makes me confident enough to consider the change of titles. I send a petition to the Emperor, in which I ask to recognize the Duchy of Burgundy as a kingdom and part of the Holy Roman Empire. I also throw in 50 ducats to sweeten the deal. The Emperor takes him time, but eventually I learn that he might consider the deal if I release all my previous conquests within the Empire’s borders. This means Liege and Friesland. I know I can always get them back, having cores and larger armies, so I agree. A kingdom for the horse for some, two provinces and 50 ducats for the kingdom for me.

In retrospect, I don’t know why Burgundy needed to become a kingdom. This is the even I always say yes to. Just to piss off Louis XI of France, I guess. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and the only one I am not guilty of is Sloth.

 

[nalivayko]

Intermission

A few words on combat. I used to consider myself a fairly good SP player. Nah. I used to consider myself God in SP I've never done a WC, since the game bores me when the challenge disappears. I've never tried to spam cavalry (and thanks to Magna Mundi, cavalry spam is much more costly now) and always tried to fight with realistic army. Fighting AI is not much of a much, but I've beaten a friend of mine - a competent player - to the ground playing as Navarre. My friend was playing as Spain.

I am not trying to brag here, I know there is score of players who are better than me. All I am trying to say that in EU1 and EU2 I knew my way around the battlefield. HOI and Victoria introduced a new concept, which was picked up by EU3, but only in EU3 I felp so helpless when fighting the AI.

Things I did not like about EU3 combat and why:

1. Enemy runs. And runs. And runs. His army is replenished unless you finish it off. Thus, I have to chase, chase, chase. Realism issue aside, it's a tedious process.
2. I like my troops. I like giving regiments meaningful names. I don't like merging the regiments, thus forcing myself to rest the armies, effectively taking them out of the combat for quite a long periods of time.
3. Mercs. I should've used more of them from the beginning, but no, I wanted to have a national standing army, as it was cheaper. Yes, I was cheap and that hurt my war effort. I would have 500 ducats set aside for a paper fabrication campaign, while they could be used on a couple of mercenary armies.

So, once EU3 came out my style of fighting was roleplayish at best. I would have 2-3 armies, taking turns in combat and allowing each other to rest and get back to full strengh. Very often I would lose momentum and fail to follow up on important victory. I was too afraid of attrition, thus limiting myself to armies of 7-8 regiments, occasionaly bringing them together for an important battle. I was too timid and I paid for it in all my previous EU3 games.

Did anything change in this game. Initially, no. I knew I had to adjust my battle tactics to be able to fight off France and Austria, Burgundy's most dangerous potential foes, but I thought if I behave myself I wouldn't need to do this too soon. Maybe in 100 years or so. After I won the tech race and build a huge Burgundian empire between France and Germany. Yeah, right. Sure. Piece of cake.

Not the right way to play the game, but again, if I did it right, I wouldn't be writing this aar right now.

 

[nalivayko]

To Greed, All Nature’s Insufficient

Where were we? Ah, yes. Pride as a deadly sin. Add Greed to it and we’ve got a recipe for disaster. Having released Friesland and Liege I decide to bring them back in the hopes that the Emperor has already been shown my eagerness to please him and now it is time to claim what it is mine by right. Liege is promptly annexed and Cologne, Elector Cologne that is, vassalized by Burgundy.

You’d think that be enough to calm me down for a decade or two, but as Donald Trump nicely puts it – the point is that you can’t be too greedy.

To the south of my Dutch holdings and to the north of my French fiefs lies the duchy of Loraine. Loraine has asked repeatedly for a royal marriage and alliance, but being greedy, I keep on refusing. Everybody knows that Loraine’s destiny is to become a bridge that connects two parts of Burgundian future empire…eh… kingdom. Why bother making friends with them? I’ve done it once before, in my previous game. I befriended them, vassalized and annexed them only to face the wrath of the Holy Roman Empire. This time I am prepared to play a different game altogether.

As a part of my plan to integrate the Duchy of Lorraine through the use of force, I select Espionage as my first National Idea (in addition to pre-existing three: Cabinet, Patron of Arts and Bureaucracy) . As Burgundy is a rich country, I hope to save enough money to compensate for the inadequacy of my spies and fabricate enough papers to claim the Kingdom of Lothair.

Needless to say, faced with such blatant hostility on my part, the Duke of Loraine allies himself with France. I am a bit worried, but by now it is about a quarter to midnight and my Napoleon brandy is acting not unlike its namesake, rapidly conquering the last remnants of my sanity. I shrug the fears off. After all, no one said it was going to be easy. I still have two more provinces in Netherlands outside my Duchy that I have cores on. Friesland will have to wait, as I notice that my popularity within the borders of Holy Roman Empire is diminishing. I don’t think they can stomach another annexation. Since I agreed to Emperor’s demands to join the Empire I may have to act a bit friendlier toward the other members.

By friendlier, of course, I mean less annexing, but grabbing a province or two is still allowed. I notice that Calais is not painted red any longer, but neither it is blue. It seems that Hamburg owns the city now and I rejoice since I was dreading making an enemy of England, but did want to add the city to my lands rather strongly.

A declaration of war is promptly delivered to Hamburg and only then I bother to check this Imperial city’s allies. Great. Utrech, Bremen, Lubeck. Hansa is coming after me. My Swiss allies bail out, quite a sensible thing to do. I briefly entertain the idea to waste some ducats to bring them back into the alliance, but decide that in this version of history they will not neither a single ducat or duc out of me. Savoy answers my call, for which I am grateful. My enemies will pay for their transgressions, whatever they may be.

 

[nalivayko]

Stalemate

This war is a bit more eventful than my previous wars. Scratch that. This is an understatement. It is pointless trying to recount all the battles that took place, but I will try to outline the major developments.

Army of Flanders takes Calais, but then gets bogged down in Netherlands trying to counter countless invasions by small Hanseatic armies. Armies do grow in size with time and number, making it hard for Burgundians to keep control of the country.

Army of Burgundy travels through Cleves and Munster to attack Hamburg itself. It besieges the city, but constant attacks by Bremen and Lubeck force the withdrawal. The arrival of the second army back to the Lowlands temporarily increases my morale. I throw them north to re-take Holland from Bremen. My initial victories prove to Pyrrhic and a bloody assault on Amsterdam costs me even more lives. I decide to withdraw to the south and let the Army of Burgundy lick its wounds in relative safety behind the lands of Lorraine. Alas, it gets massacred alone the way by newly arrived Munster army.

Yes, Munster. Love the cheese, by the way, but this is no excuse to backstab me like that. I promptly raise a second army in Burgundy proper, giving it the same name and march it north to relieve the pressure on the Army of Flanders. At this point during the war I control only Calais, while my enemy has control of three of four of my provinces. I still have plenty of ducats to throw around, but being cheap I save them for province improvements and spies.

The struggle continues, more or less without any major breakthroughs on each side. The arrival of a newly raised army prevents Hansa's armies from taking any more of my territory and allows me to initiate a mini reconquista. Still, I fail to take Munster out of the game by a quick march on their capital, which hurts, as their army is rather strong and continues to besiege one city after another.

I start thinking about raising a third army to break the stalemate. I am still confident in my ability to teach these German dogs a lesson and add Calais to my growing domains.

 

[nalivayko]

Knockdown

I should have known I was fighting on the time borrowed when Munster declared war on me. I mean, if small unimportant bishopric feels they can take me on, surely France will give this a thought as well. To say that the news stun me is to say nothing at all. Usually this is a good point to throw away the mouse, mutter couple of curses, restart the game to the early save and adjust your strategy to avoid a sure disaster. But I am drunk on brandy and music and the sense of coming doom only spikes my determination to fight on.

Quick review of France in 1475. France fought two wars with England since 1453. First war ended in white peace, second saw England losing Gascoigne. Louis XI was successful in convincing Auvergne and Bourbonnais to give up their independence and in the west Brittany was reduced to one province duchy. French armies were numerous, well-paid and well-led. French allies included Lorraine, Scotland and Norway, while her vassals were Provence and Armagnac.

My only ally Savoy promptly broke our alliance, refusing to sacrifice itself for the glory of greater Burgundy.

At first I try to race against time thinking I can still defeat Hansa and gain Calais before turning my attention to France. Underlining the stupidity of my decision to ignore Loraine’s request for alliance, Lorraine’s troops cross the border and invade Bourgogne. French also cross the borders en masse, but they are too numerous to list all the provinces they invade.

I raise a mercenary army in Burgundy and attempt to remove Lorraine out of this war by besieging their capital. No luck. 7,000 knights make sure I cannot remove them from my capital (my mercenary army has the same composition as my other armies: 2,000 knights and 4,000 infantry), the temporary stalemate is reached, but French besiege Nevers and I am sure something drastic will have to be done to reverse the course of war.

Finally I acknowledge I am licked and try to make the best out it. Hamburg accepts white peace gladly ignoring the successes and sacrifices of her allies. A second march on Munster finally gets bishops troops out of the war. However, just as I get my hopes up my mercenary army dubbed “Hellequins” is massacred by French in Lorraine. Avignon is taken and so is a good number of my Dutch provinces. I force a march on Paris, defeating a couple of French regiments alone the way, but a white peace is definitely not an option Louis XI is ready to discuss.

Upset, humiliated, humbled and angry at the same time, I pay no attention to messages from the Emperor. Thus, when he demands to return Lippe to Cologne, I choose a wrong option and flip a bird in direction of Germany. I actually did not realize we were talking about Lippe, thinking the province in question is Liege. Naturally, all of the Empire is upset with me now. Strategy and alcohol do not mix well, I guess.

I look around for a scapegoat province I need the least in my kingdom-to-be. Avignon is a third level fortress, but it is cut off from my lands by France. I gather enough ducats not to look like a beggar and send a diplomat to Paris. Avignon and 100 ducats later I have my five year truce. Thus ends the first war between Burgundy and France. It feels like I have been punched in the mouth and had all the fighting spirit knocked out of me. I refuse to believe this is a knockout though, just a temporary knockdown, but for the life of me I do not know how I am going to handle France five years from now.

 

[nalivayko]

Second Intermission

Now would be a good time to analyze what went wrong and address my shortcomings as a ruler, strategist and gamer. And I do. To a point. I mean, my bottle of brandy is empty now, which means I should spend less time reaching for the glass and more time clicking around, which somehow should improve my thinking abilities and help me come up with a bulletproof plan for a second war that is sure to come.

I offer France a royal marriage hoping to hurt their stability in case when they declare a war. I entertain the idea of befriending them and stalling the future conflict until the next century. I do have enough cash for this and it is a solid even if cowardly strategy. However, in the aftermath of the war we have a border dispute and being more greedy than cowardly I boldly lay claim to four French provinces, ruining our relations to the point beyond repair.

Meanwhile, I still await for my kingdom-to-be crown from the Emperor, try to improve my stability, hunt for good advisors and sigh every time I see how little chance I have to claim any of Lorraine’s provinces. Savoy comes back with alliance proposal, guilty look on its face, tail lowered and swinging in silent apology. I accept, just to prevent them from falling into French orbit.

Vysotskiy still sounds upbeat and determined. Singing alone I forget about my worries, letting the game drag on, living the history one day at a time. I forget about France, but somehow I am pretty sure France never forgets about me.

 

[unmerged(59077)]

Interesting.

I love the very personal descriptive style there, yes. And it's very educational...

 

[nalivayko]

Along Came The Spider

As I happily drifted through time, unaware that it was well past midnight on a workday, my mind turned once again to the problem that plagues all institutions, armies included – the problem of competent leadership. My early conquests saw my Dukes perform brilliantly on the battlefield. However, I began to suspect that the early death of Philip IV, only five years into his reign, could only be explained by natural causes if you count war as a natural disaster. I was too concentrated on conquering Liege that I paid little attention to my Duke’s death. One replaced the other. Charles, I’ll call him the Bold, followed Philip, a small historic coincidence that made me smile.

I can claim that the main reason to stop using my Dukes as leaders is the increased chance of death, but the truth is that after years of war my army tradition was high and with full treasury I am able to bring good leaders on board, thus possibly saving Charles his brother’s fate.

Having addressed a problem of leadership (I now have three leaders, one spare for the mercenary army that is disbanded after war, but will be assembled at the slightest sign of danger), I look around to expand my Duchy and compensate myself for the loss of Avignon. Friesland is an obvious choice, Liege being conquered, Calais and French provinces in the hands of the stronger foe. Unfortunately, Friesland is allied to Sweden and with no navy my only hope is to end war with them after annexing the Frisians is to pray for white peace. I am to weary of getting bogged down in another war in the north and decide to wait for a more opportune moment.

Meanwhile, lurking in the south, the Spider King Louis XI has already weaved the net for the fly he considers my Burgundy to be. Five years after the truce was declared between the Kingdom of France and Duchy of Burgundy, he sends another formal declaration of war and his troops begin pouring across the border.

As much as I try to ignore France she is not going to go away. This war is going to decide the future of Burgundy. Do I stop the French tide here and now or will I lose another piece of Burgundian land to the foe. Losing land means eventual demise of my kingdom-to-be, while stopping the French is only prolonging the agony. I need a cunning plan, but my brains at this point lack capacity for grand strategic thinking. This is the best I can come up with:

1. Raise a mercenary army in Burgundy, which will lead an attack on Lorraine from the south.
2. Use Army of Flanders and Army of Burgundy to attack Lorraine from the north.
3. Make peace with Lorraine grabbing as much land as possible.
4. Pray for French troops to go away
a. I have a little hope of another country attacking France, but it is still there
b. I can try to march on Paris and force white peace on them
c. I can still buy them out (provided peace with Lorraine will grant me two provinces, I can still hope to emerge out of this war a victor of sorts)

I am getting sleepy, but don’t want to go to bed defeated. I need some kind of affirmation that I am still a great leader, a god of war, a master of the battlefield. Forget the fact that I am going to hurt in the morning, the morning will happen later and the French are here now.

 

[nalivayko]

Enemy At The Gates

As one would expect nothing works as intended from the start. I manage to besiege all of Lorraine’s cities only to find French in control of every border province before I manage to take any of my targets. I order assaults only to see them repulsed with heavy casualties. French threaten to annihilate all of my armies, so I make a quick adjustment and settle for a white peace with Lorraine. The capital is so safe for a brief moment of time, but then Scots and Norwegians land in Holland and I have to make a hard decision – whether to concentrate my efforts on the north or the south part of my holdings.

The northern part contains more provinces, the southern my capital. I go north anyway, striving to preserve my revenues. The wars are won by deep pockets and I need to hold on to the source of my economic power. Several battles later I combine my mercenary force with the Army of Burgundy, making it the main element of my offense, while the Army of Flanders once again sneaks around French lines to march on Paris.

The siege of Paris drags on and on. My main army liberates Hainaut and Vlaanderen, but then cannot move on having to protect the small garrisons in place. French continue capturing my lands north of this improvised defensive line getting as far as Breda. In the midst of all this the Emperor is happy to inform me that my dream of making Burgundy a kingdom is too absurd to consider.

My eyes turn red with rage. I almost break a mouse pressing hard that button that describes my feelings oh so well: I will show you all what a mere duchy can do! This is the last straw. I consider pausing the war and starting a new game again. I mean, becoming a kingdom is for some reason very important to me at this point. It would do miracles to my morale. It would prove that I am equal to French if not on the battlefield than in the courts throughout Europe. Now this entire war begins to look like just punishment of a vassal by his liege. I wipe out a small Scot regiment trying to besiege Vlaanderen and fight on with the determination of a person who knows there is nothing more to lose. Things that could go wrong already did. Mere duchy? Check. War with France? Check. Half of my country overran? Check.

On a second thought, many more things can go wrong, but who cares. If I am to go down, I will go down fighting.

I get a small break with land tech 3, allowing me to choose between men-at-arms and longbows for my infantry. I choose the weapon that defeated French on the battlefields of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. I hope it would increase the morale of my soldiers, while making French shiver with fear. Purposefully, I fail to check the land tech state of the French army. I do not need any disappointments at this point. As long as I believe my armies are better that is all that matters.

With this new found courage I begin to take on larger French armies. Before, I would only consider a battle if I had 5:1 numerical advantage. Yeah, call me a coward, I don’t care. Now I dare going against armies half my size. Not a chivalrous conduct by any measure, but one that guarantees victory… most of the time. Preserving my soldiers became my priority, although there weren’t too many men forced to arms as of later, most of the fighting is done by my knights and mercenaries, while longbowmen are too few to notice. I guess, it is more or less right, considering how hard it is to train an archer.

My only hope is that these new changes are not too late. The only provinces not under enemy occupation are above mentioned Vlaanderen, Hainuit, Zeeland and Holland. The French still outnumber me in a proportion best not known and Scots and Norwegians refuse to settle for any kind of peace. My ally has, of course, deserted me in the beginning of the war and the only outside help I get is from tiny Bavaria that guaranteed my independence and tries to prove to the Empire that they mean business.

I commend their valiant effort, curse the Emperor to hell and move my army north, away from Vlaanderen in a desperate attempt to force the French out of the Low Countries.

 

[nalivayko]

Weathering the Storm

In a weird twist of fate I am cursing and praising the Emperor at the same time. Why else would a tiny Bavaria come to my defense? Of course, as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, it feels obliged to defend the borders of this empire against foreign aggression. I don’t see this right away… in fact I only realize it after the war’s over. Bavarians don’t tie many French troops down, maybe a tenth of their number. They capture a province or two and are immediately pushed back, but the impact of their assistance on my morale is much greater. It shows me that I am not alone, no matter how pathetically small this new found ally’s army is.

AI method of fighting the war, especially when the numbers are on it’s side, is very solid. Advance a huge army, capture a province, keep an army there until the garrison is reinforced to original size, advance to another province, repeat. Make it five or six armies and you get the picture. With only two armies of my own I cannot hope to capture as many provinces as the enemy, forget about getting ahead. Now I realize that this is also AI’s weakness, but it is now and back at one o’clock in the morning French line does not seem to hold any weak spots.

Spider King Louis XI dies to be replaced by Jean III, who personally leads his armies to battle. French have an array of capable generals. Having only two armies to speak of, I experience no shortage of leadership myself. But French armies continue to lose men to attrition trying so hard to defend their new conquests, while my 12,000-strong army’s casualties all occur on the battlefield. I continually merge my mercenary infantry and hire more regiments to keep the number above 10,000. I begin to target weakened and stationary enemy armies and besieging the provinces with 1,000-strong mercenary regiments.

At first, I fail to liberate northern Low Countries completely as one strong French army in Liege presents too much of a challenge. I have no desire to risk a major battle, so I sweep south, cleaning up provinces between Vlaanderen and newly captured Paris. My second army moves west and begins to capture French provinces around Brittany, occasionally taking a break to defend our conquests against smaller French relief forces.

French maintain a strong presence in Champagne and Liege, so I leave them alone there, concentrating on the provinces along Atlantic. Couple of my smaller besieging forces gets crushed as they relax their guard, but I feel more or less confident that there is no immediate danger of defeat. And then I get the news from Nevers and the feeling of despair comes back. Nevers has defected to the enemy.

This is one of my most favorite events in Magna Mundi (I am pretty sure this is not vanilla event). Once you control a province for a long period of time it joins your realm. There is a chance you will suffer an additional reputation hit if the courts of Europe fail to recognize your right to own it, but it is impossible to make an omelet without breaking couple of eggs and it sure beats fighting the enemy at the negotiating table. All in all, this is a very sweet event you grow to love… unless, of course, it happens to you.

All of a sudden I realize it France controlled my Burgundian culture provinces for far too long and Nevers is not the only province that may defect, if I don’t bring this war to conclusion soon.

 

[nalivayko]

Coup de Grâce

The defection of Nevers makes me realize that the idea of white peace, which I am still entertaining ,is not a valid option any longer. France keeps refusing and with the score in their favor I am forced to empty my treasury, divert all the minting from research to treasury and press my armies hard against the enemy. Unknown to myself, but clearly visible to my neighbors they French shows first signs of breaking. The offers of alliance come from Savoy and Brittany, signaling a breakthrough. Of course, I am too drunk to notice.

I battle French across the fields of Low Countries, Champagne, Brittany and Maine, still feeling desperate and sad over my supposed demise. I retake all of my lands and carry the war into France with vengeance. French fight us every step of the way. My inflation rises as my army upkeep skyrockets. Mercenary may be a vaild solution in the short term, but relying on them alone is costly. As soon as I get a chance I begin to raise non-mercenary regiments for the first time in many years.

Years pass. It takes me only seconds to write it, but a good hour to play. My armies push the French as far as the Pyrenees, but fail to complete the conquest. When all else failed, French peasants remember the good old days, the Maid of the Orleans and decide to take matters in their own hands. Massive rebellions spark across France, forcing my armies to run from one end of the kingdom to another. France fields an army after an army, which get defeated, but keep me on my toes. My own peasants keep unusually quite except, of course, for Lippe, which revolts almost every year reminding me of the mistake I made when I chose to keep the province instead of returning it to Cologne.

I wait for another couple of years, hoping to conquer the last two remaining French provinces of Toulouse and Bearn. Jean III keeps offering me two worthless provinces near Atlantic and renouncing all French claims on Burgundian and Dutch lands. I keep throwing more mercenaries at French walls and French rebels. My treasury is empty and I am in no mood to keep the inflation going up. Finally two French provinces, Champagne and Vermandois, decide to defect, making the score even (2 for 1 is even right?). Seeing their defection makes me feel generous enough to offer French peace.

I ask for three provinces only. Nevers is one, I have to have it back. Othe will help me widen the corridor between Burgundy and Low Countries established by the defection of Champagne and Vermandois. The third I am not sure about. I’ve had cores on Champagne, Othe, Lyonnais and Auvergne. I lost Lyonnais briefly to rebels, got it back and now there is another rebel army ravaging the countryside. Auvergne has a 3,000-strong garrison fortress, which is a pain to take. The choice is clear, Auvergne is the third province I ask for and receive from France. The war is over. Burgundy has prevailed.
It is 2:30 in the morning. My head is aching and I feel really, really sleepy. I need to wake up to go to work at seven. But my heart is singing with joy. I save the game and resign to view the notes about the war. Wtf?

“The minor Second French-Burgundian War ended after 19 years resulting in conquest.” 4 hours, 19 years and 173 battles later (I am to tired to count the casualties) and it is still just a minor war. I go to my brother’s room, kick him awake and proceed to tell him a tale of a great war dubbed minor by some incompetent historian. An occasional polite snore indicates his undivided interest. I go to bed resolved to write this AAR in the morning to make things right, set the record straight and sing glory to uncounted thousands of Burgundian soldiers. I know that they have not died in vain for I am again at peace with EU3. I am again in love with the game and the loving memories of EU2 hunt my dreams no longer.

 

[Capibara]

suscribes

 

[unmerged(61606)]

maybe some screenshots?

 

[stnylan]

That is one hell of a lot of posts at once. Good to see you write another AAR however

 

[nalivayko]

RGB, thanks for the kind words

Capibara, thank you, but I am afraid your subscription won't last long This was supposed to be the end of the mini AAR, although I might get another installment with screenshot or two and conclusions.

rcduggan, coming up, I ran into the most horrible sort of a problem. I was about to upload some images to my website using SharePoint Designer, when I found out evil Vista does not allow access to SharePoint sites. Microsoft product hating Microsoft product, what is the world coming to? I'll fix it today though, gotta give credit to the wonderful graphics of TOT mod.

stnylan, I was really hoping to preserve that feeling of excitement from my previous night. Since I went for a more personal approach, which requires more emotion than informational AAR, I had to act fast.

 

[coz1]

Now that was exciting! I almost missed this but glad I did not as I always love a Nalivayko AAR. And as nasty as it was, dealing with France early is the way to go. Too bad you didn't have too many allies to assist. I am impressed you pulled out a victory in the end as it did not look like you had such an opportunity midway through.

Looking forward to screenies if you have them...and maybe another tale of war and woe, and eventual victory!

Nicely done, sir.